Aunt Sally has a full time job earning £55,000 per annum. She is a 40% rate tax payer and has a buy to let landlord portfolio comprising 20 properties. She started investing in property 10 years ago.  Aunt Sally is in a quandary. She has heard about the budget proposal to change the way that […]

It was mentioned recently in another discussion that re-mortgage arrangement and broker fees are not allowable expenses , but are instead treated as capital costs. This clearly has some relevance to the ongoing debate on tax relief of loan interest changes in the budget. My research ( and personal experience) points that they should be […]

I signed a lease a couple of months ago for a property in London with my ex-partner, and after breaking up (which was essentially in the first week of moving in in the new flat – great timing I know). I contacted the landlord to let him know if I could move out as this […]

One of our thankfully soon to be former tenant is a “protected person” under the OPG (Office of the Public Guardian) and is in receipt of substantial medical negligence claim income under the supervision of a solicitor. Unfortunately the tenant has both allowed and caused substantial damage by both carelessness and deliberate act from broken […]

Neil Mukherjee, landlord, kindly shared with us his step by step experience of using High Court enforcement to repossess his property from tenants who had ignored a court order to move out. We were able to evict the tenant quickly and hope Neil’s experience will help other landlords to consider transferring their possession order up […]

I am just about to buy a property and I had my mortgage in place through TMW (The Mortgage Works). While reading through the Standard BTL Mortgage Conditions:2012 booklet they sent me I noticed right at the back a tiny little clause which I think could have serious consequences for me (and anyone else with […]

There has been a lot of talk about this allowance being fair game for removal and at first I thought the same. When I read the IR consultation document I suddenly realised some serious consequences and why the allowance had probably been given in the first place. I have written to HMRC as part of […]

As part of our campaign to reverse the Government’s Budget proposals restricting finance cost relief for individual landlords we are aiming to lobby all MPs in the UK – and as many times as possible.  We are asking that everyone who is against this proposal firstly signs this petition: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/104880 Secondly, and as importantly, we are asking that […]

What is a tax efficient investment for landlords to consider if they don’t like the idea of pension schemes and want to invest into something else other than property?  The answer is a business which benefits from the Seed Enterprise Initiative Scheme, AKA SEIS. Clearly they would want to invest into something they understand, i.e. property […]

Landlords are investing in rental properties particularly in London, Birmingham and Bristol, according to research by Barclays bank. The biggest jumps in BTL properties purchased has been seen in Plymouth, which ranked 212th in the Barclays ranking last year and is now 16th in 2015. More businesses are flocking to the South West as a […]

My LPA receiver sold one of my properties (without the power of sale I later found out but another story). There was an access passageway to the property and before the transfer, the main house was transferred to another title leaving me the owner of the passageway on the original title. The AP1 for the […]

With immense joy and interest I’m devouring all Property118 articles. What a wealth of experience and knowledge you all have! And what generosity to share this wealth with others. My husband and I are a newly retired Dutch(me)/English couple who have lived in Australia for 32 years. We are experienced BTL investors and renovators, however, […]

I had a boiler installed on finance but paperwork seems to be missing and some of the radiators are not working. The company that arranged the installation admitted there seems to be an error on their side and they do not have copy of documents, and the engineer they hired to carry out the installation […]

There is a leak from the flat above me that has caused significant damage to a bedroom in my flat. The owner of the flat above (who owns the leasehold, and also a share of the freehold (as do I)) is refusing to accept responsibility and to trace the leak in her bathroom (the leak […]

Under “Right to Rent” proposals in the upcoming Immigration Bill the Home Office would issue a notice when an asylum application fails that confirms the tenant no longer has the right to rent property. This will then give landlords the ability to end the tenancy without a court order in some circumstances. Financial support for […]

Would you be prepared to invest just 15 minutes a day to campaign against the Budget proposals to restrict finance cost relief for private landlords? If so please complete the form at the bottom of this article. Every day we will send you one email with new campaign ideas, for example:- 1) Letter templates (first example below) […]

I rented a house which had 12 months minimum term. This was unknowingly signed by me and my wife because we discussed 6 months. We had intention of staying in the house for 6 months because we were already looking for mortgage to secure our own house. Luckily after staying for 7 months (March 2015) […]

I would like some advice regarding taking in a live in lodger. I was wondering if it would be necessary or advisable to obtain a tenant reference for a live in lodger prior to them moving in as it is for a tenant renting a property on an AST. Any advice would be most helpful. […]

This is the petition that intends to STOP the Government making the biggest mistake in recent history. “Restricting finance cost relief for individual landlords” The petition isn’t branded by any particular organisation because this issue is far too important to us all than to allow rivalries to influence campaigning. All you need to know about the […]

My wife and I are divorcing and we want to transfer 3 rental properties from joint names into my name in return for a lump sum that I will pay her. I believe we have to do the transfer in the year of separation otherwise a CGT would be payable. What is involved in the […]

We have been using a letting agent to fully manage one of our properties for the last 8 years and we pay 10% commission for doing this which includes Landlord insurance. Around 2 years ago he found us a new tenant and she moved in and everything was fine. A couple of months after she […]